Peter Parolin

Biography

Peter Parolin is currently serving as the Dean of the Honors College. Peter joined the UW English department in 1997. He has twice chaired the department (2008-11; 2014-17) as well as serving as Assistant Chair of English.

Peter’s areas of research and teaching include English Renaissance literature, especially Shakespeare, women and performance in the early modern world, plays and performance, and the scholarship of food, with special reference to early modern receipt books (recipe books).
For the Honors College, Peter teaches the long-running summer study abroad course, “Shakespeare in England and Italy,” as well as serving as dean of this interdisciplinary college.

Beyond UW, Peter leads the Stratford Seminar Society, a summer seminar series at the Stratford Festival of Canada. In his extra-curricular life, he acts for UW Theatre and Dance and the local company Relative Theatrics. His favorite roles include Rothko in Red, Danforth in The Crucible, Holofernes in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Botvinnik in A Walk in the Woods, Papa/Sims in The Nether, David in I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard, and Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing.

Education

Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

B.A., University of British Columbia

M.A., University of Pennsylvania

Recent and Upcoming Courses

Shakespeare Histories and Comedies: Uncomfortable Shakespeare

Introduction to Literature

Introduction to English Studies

Selected Publications

Peter Parolin. “1 Henry IV.” Early Modern English Foodways: A Critical Anthology, edited by David Goldstein and Victoria Yeoman, Routledge, publication forthcoming 2026.

Peter Parolin, Rebecca C. Bott-Knutson, and Timothy J. Nichols. “Honors Identity as a Builder of Belonging,” in Belonging in Honors, edited by Anne C. Dotter, National Collegiate Honors Council, publication forthcoming 2026.

Peter Parolin. “The Stratford Festival of Canada.” Encyclopedia entry for The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Shakespeare, edited by Alexa Joubin, Elizabeth Pentland, and Ema Vryoubalova, 2024.

Peter Parolin. “Theatre as a Barometer of Contestation: The Case of Julius Caesar in Central Park, 2017,” in Polarization, Culture Wars, and Global Leadership Crisis: Contestations of the Liberal Script in the US, edited by Tanja Börzel, Thomas Risse, Stephanie Anderson, and Jean Garrison, eds., Oxford University Press, 2024.

Peter Parolin, Timothy J. Nichols, Donal C. Skinner, and Rebecca C. Bott-Knutson. “The Role of the Honors College Dean in the Future of Honors Education,” in Honors Colleges in the 21st Century, edited by Richard Badenhausen, National Collegiate Honors Council, 2023.

Peter Parolin. “The Communal Basis of Distinctive Voice in 17th-Century Receipt Manuscripts.” Early Modern Studies Journal, vol. 7, 2021. https://earlymodernstudiesjournal.org/review_articles/the-communal-basis-of-distinctive-voice-in-17th-century-receipt-manuscripts/

Peter Parolin and Phyllis Rackin, eds. “Close Reading Shakespeare: An Essay Cluster,” Early Modern Culture, summer 2017.

Peter Parolin. “The poor creature small beer”: Princely Autonomy and Subjection in 2 Henry IV,” in David Goldstein and Amy Tigner, eds, Staging Food and Drink in Early Modern England. Duquesne, 2016.

Peter Parolin and Susan Aronstein. “‘The play’s the thing’: The Cinematic Fortunes of Chaucer and Shakespeare,” in Chaucer on Screen: Absence, Presence, and Adapting the Canterbury Tales. Ohio State, 2016.

Peter Parolin. “Introduction: Access and Contestation: Women’s Performance in Early Modern England, Italy, France, and Spain,” in Peter Parolin, ed., Early Theatre 15,1, 2012

Peter Parolin, “‘If I had begun to dance’: Women’s Performance in Kemp’s Nine Daies Wonder,” in Peter Parolin, ed., Early Theatre 15, 1, 2012

Peter Parolin, “‘What revels are in hand’: A Change of Direction at the Stratford Festival of Canada,” Shakespeare Quarterly 60, 2, 2009

Pamela Allen Brown and Peter Parolin, eds. Women Players in England, 1500-1660: Beyond the All-Male Stage. Ashgate, 2005.

Selected Awards

College of Arts and Sciences Top Ten Teacher Award, 2016, 2011, 2010, 2008, 2007, 2004, 2003

John P. Ellbogen Meritorious Classroom Teaching Award, 2013

College of Arts and Sciences Seibold Professorship, 2011-12

Beatrice Gallatin Beuf Golden Apple Award for Teaching Excellence in Freshman Level Courses, 2002

College of Arts and Sciences Award for Extraordinary Merit in Teaching, 2000

College of Arts and Sciences Award for Extraordinary Merit in Advising, 2001